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Spurs inflict pain on Anzhi

Moscow - Tottenham's encouraging start to the season has continued unchecked as Andre Villas-Boas' post-Gareth Bale era side made it two out of two in the Europa League on Thursday.

Spurs shrugged off hostile weather conditions in Russia to deny Anzhi Makhachkala 2-0 and tighten their grip on Group K.

Jermain Defoe celebrated his call-up to the England squad earlier in the day for this month's final batch of World Cup qualifiers with the first goal.

Set up by Lewis Holtby he struck from inside the box after the half hour mark, rifling the ball into the roof of the net.

That left the striker one goal shy of Martin Chivers' European club record tally of 24.

Nacer Chadli doubled up five minutes later for his second goal since arriving from FC Twente.

Again Holtby was involved, playing the ball out to Kyle Walker, with the right-back slipping the ball across to Chadli to sweep home.

The game, played on the Ramenskoye pitch in the Moscow suburbs 1 100 miles away from Anzhi's home stadium due to the conflict in Dagestan, turned more in Anzhi's favour after the break, but they were unable to find a way back.

Villa-Boas, who had fielded a nearly all-fresh line-up from the side that drew 1-1 with Chelsea last weekend and with West Brom looming on Sunday, looked more than satisfied with his 'B' side's showing as did the 150 or so fans who had made the trip from north London.

Anzhi, who have sold almost all of their stars after billionaire owner Suleiman Kerimov decided to restructure the club and drastically shrink their budget, are without a win in any competition this campaign.

In other early Europa League action Valencia picked themselves up from their opening loss to Swansea with a 2-0 Group A win at at Kuban Krasnoda.

Swansea host Swiss side St Gallen later.

In Group D another Russian outfit, Rubin Kazan, moved up to a maximum six points on the strength of a 4-0 win over Zulte Waregem from Belgium

Zulte had drawn last time out with FA Cup winners Wigan who are hosting Slovenian visitors Maribor.

Europa League results on Thursday:

Group A:


Kuban Krasnodar (RUS) 0 Valencia (ESP) 2 (Alcacer 73, Feghouli 81)

Group D:

Rubin Kazan (RUS) 4 (Duplus 60-og, Eremenko 73, Ryazantsev 81, Natcho 89) Zulte-Waregem (BEL) 0

Group G:

Rapid Vienna (AUT) 2 (Burgstaller 53, Trimmel 90+4) Dynamo Kiev (UKR) 2 (Yarmolenko 30, Dibon 34-o.g.)
RC Genk (BEL) 2 (Gorius 55, Vossen 63) Thun (SUI) 1 (Martnez 90+3)

Group H:

Liberec (CZE) 2 (Sural 15, Ra. Kovac 62) Estoril (POR) 1 (Lus Leal 45)
Sevilla (ESP) 2 (Perotti 63-pen, Bacca 90+1) Freiburg (GER) 0

Group I:

Rijeka (CRO) 1 (Benko 10) Real Betis (ESP) 1 (Cedric 14)
Lyon (FRA) 1 (Gonalon 53) Vitoria Guimaraes (POR) 1 (Maazou 39)

Group J:

Legia Warsaw (POL) 0 Apollon Limassol (CYP) 1 (Sangoy 56)
Trabzonspor (TUR) 3 (Erdogan 12, Mierzejewski 22, Paulo Henrique 35) Lazio (ITA) 3 (Onazi 29, Floccari 84, 85)

Group K:

Anzhi Makhachkala (RUS) 0 Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) 2 (Defoe 34, Chadli 39)
Tromso (NOR) 1 (Ondrasek 65) Sheriff (MDA) 1 (Ricardinho 87)

Group L:

Shakthyor Karagandy (KAZ) 2 (Finonchenko 40, Tarasov 45) Maccabi Haifa (ISR) 2 (Ezra 54, Turgeman 79)
AZ Alkmaar (NED) 1 (Gouweleeuw 81) PAOK (GRE) 1 (Salpingidis 90+3)

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